NYPL Acquires Terry Southern Archive

A grant from film director Steven Soderbergh has enabled the New York Public Library (NYPL) acquire a large archive of writer Terry Southern’s personal materials. Southern authored satirical and sexually-charged novels such as The Magic Christian and Candy that became standards among the counter-culture vultures during the 1960s. In addition to his novels, he also wrote screenplays for Stanley Kubrick’s war parody Dr Strangelove and Peter Fonda’s anti-establishment classic Easy Rider. NYPL said that, in addition to materials directly relating to Southern’s work, the archive includes “correspondence and other items from such literary and cultural figures as George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, Frank O’Hara, Larry Rivers, William Styron… as well as pop stars John Lennon, Ringo Starr [who appeared in the feature film version of The Magic Christian], and the Rolling Stones.” The archive will be included in NYPL’s Berg Collection of English and American Literature.